Notes and Editorial Reviews

"...Gardiner's account of the Vienna Orfeo ed Euridice is peerless. One soon loses all sense of its being a period-instrument performance at all, so profound, at times overwhelming is its impact - so utterly right. In detail after detail - hauntingly poetic offstage instrumental complement, perfectly positioned in the drama (and perfectly captured by the excellent Philips recording); superbly stirring brass playing, which makes every entry a dramatic event; choral singing extraordinarily light in weight yet rich in emotional substance; exquisitely refined dance movements - and in sustainment of a delicately tenebrous, uniquely Gluckian atmosphere throughout, Gardiner's command of an opera championed since his first London concertRead more performance, 21 years ago, is revealed as simply larger and fuller than almost anyone else's. The set was studio-made after many concerthall performances by exactly the same forces, and in recording terms it achieves the best of all worlds -the vitality of a live event married to the precision of a recording.

-- Gramophone [9/1997] Reviewing original release of this recordingRead less

Customer Reviews

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